Stay UNcomfortable

(3.7.12)

This morning I received an email that was forwarded in error.  A member of upper management was replaced and accidentally copied a lot more people on her message than she meant to.  She has worked for the company for over 10 years.

It's hard, we all know that.  Money is tight and it seems like everybody is stroking out.  An Associate’s is the new GED, a Bachelor's; the new HS Diploma.  Deferment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, reverse mortgages... These are probably words on middle-school spelling tests now.

The lady who cleaned our building recently lost her job as well.  She is very sweet and accidentally told us how much money she made before she left.  Her company was outbid by another company who, and I mean to be entirely honest here, must be paying their staff $7/hour.

We are facing a time where "over-qualified" is a true reality.  Think about what that actually means - you are literally TOO good at what you do.  You are so good, in fact, that the company would rather higher someone with less education and experience because, financially, a green candidate is chomping at the bit to make 30k and work up that ladder for the next 20 years.

Spring is here which brings with it an integral facet of rebirth.  I’m not sure who all reads what I write or if anybody that does has been affected by the decline in the job market.  Today I feel thankful for my job.  Ideally I’d love to jet set from coast-to-coast and sip rum from coconuts and photograph poison dart frogs but my reality just hasn’t caught up with my dream world yet.  I don’t know if it ever can (or should for that matter).

While thankful, I’m not complacent and I can’t condone attributing a lack of self-growth to a stifled economy, but I do acknowledge the fact that this is a prime opportunity for all of us to become something bigger.  If you lost your job as an Executive VP of Sales at Meade and always wanted to design handbags, well work at Hobby Lobby and study online.  If you had a kid at 16 and have been stuck at Big Lots since ’96, here’s your window.

Read a book, look at a magazine, smell the air, feel the sun.  You might not be where you dream of being right now but you could very well end up somewhere you dread… tomorrow.

The cliché is “Nothing “good” lasts forever,” but offers no explanation of what happens after that.  Maybe “good” gives way to “great” and “great” flows into “amazing”.  We’re given an opportunity to sparkle… and if I’ve learned ANYTHING from Mariah Carey, it’s that even if we don’t always want to accept it, Glitter always catches everybody’s eye.

Whether they accept it, or not.

This morning I received an email that was forwarded in error.  A member of upper management was replaced and accidentally copied a lot more people on her message than she meant to.  She has worked for the company for over 10 years.

It's hard, we all know that.  Money is tight and it seems like everybody is stroking out.  An Associate’s is the new GED, a Bachelor's; the new HS Diploma.  Deferment, foreclosure, bankruptcy, reverse mortgages... These are probably words on middle-school spelling tests now. 

The lady who cleaned our building recently lost her job as well.  She is very sweet and accidentally told us how much money she made before she left.  Her company was outbid by another company who, and I mean to be entirely honest here, must be paying their staff $7/hour. 

We are facing a time where "over-qualified" is a true reality.  Think about what that actually means - you are literally TOO good at what you do.  You are so good, in fact, that the company would rather higher someone with less education and experience because, financially, a green candidate is chomping at the bit to make 30k and work up that ladder for the next 20 years.

Spring is here which brings with it an integral facet of rebirth.  I’m not sure who all reads what I write or if anybody that does has been affected by the decline in the job market.  Today I feel thankful for my job.  Ideally I’d love to jet set from coast-to-coast and sip rum from coconuts and photograph poison dart frogs but my reality just hasn’t caught up with my dream world yet.  I don’t know if it ever can (or should for that matter).

While thankful, I’m not complacent and I can’t condone attributing a lack of self-growth to a stifled economy, but I do acknowledge the fact that this is a prime opportunity for all of us to become something bigger.  If you lost your job as an Executive VP of Sales at Meade and always wanted to design handbags, well work at Hobby Lobby and study online.  If you had a kid at 16 and have been stuck at Big Lots since ’96, here’s your window.

Read a book, look at a magazine, smell the air, feel the sun.  You might not be where you dream of being right now but you could very well end up somewhere you dread… tomorrow.

The cliché is “Nothing “good” lasts forever,” but offers no explanation of what happens after that.  Maybe “good” gives way to “great” and “great” flows into “amazing”.  We’re given an opportunity to sparkle… and if I’ve learned ANYTHING from Mariah Carey, it’s that even if we don’t always want to accept it, Glitter always catches everybody’s eye. 

Whether they accept it, or not.